A beautiful friendship
by BimboBoop
Summary: Movies, shopping, re-decorating, getting high and learning to drive. Blair and Dan share a holiday interlude that leads to a beautiful friendship between the two. But will it develop into something more?
1. Blair and Dan go to the movies

**A Beautiful Friendship**

_Set post 4x11, this is the story of Blair and Dan's evolving friendship. I'm normally a Chair fan but I'm quite excited about the idea of a Dair pairing. I hope the show's writers go with it and don't screw it up, as they are sadly wont to do after getting a good idea._

As he checked session times for the French Forum, Dan contemplated the strange series of events that had led him to the point where he was about to spend an afternoon in Blair Waldorf's company. By choice.

If Nate had been around, he could have been playing X-box.

If Jenny hadn't left town, he could have been being dragged to the shops.

If Vanessa hadn't disappeared, he would have been drinking coffee and philosophizing.

If he had accepted Serena's invitation, they would probably be reconciled by now.

But he had been shaken by Blair's insights into the way his obsession with Serena had distracted him from other aspects of his life, like his writing. Looking back, he couldn't help but wonder if she was right. Perhaps he had suddenly become obsessed with Serena again as a distraction from his feelings of inadequacy after Vanessa's creative dreams took off while his own seemingly foundered. Maybe subconsciously he had believed he could get back on track if he managed to win back the affections of the girl who had been his first real muse.

Yet when Serena had offered him a chance to spend time with her and reclaim her heart on a road trip to speak to a judge about an affidavit forged in her name (not really a likely premise for great romance), Dan had had trouble even concentrating on what she was saying. Blair's words were ringing in his ears. He had also been distracted by the other girl's presence at Serena's side, and the knowing, sly smile she had sent in his direction.

It wasn't that spending an entire day with Blair a week earlier had revealed a new side to her. But what it had done had reinforced what he had already known about Blair's good side: her loyalty to her friends, her willingness to do anything for those she loved, her determination to see a thing through, her quick-wittedness and her at times surprising perspicacity into others' lives.

Dan's respect for these qualities, and thus his overall estimation of Blair, had been growing for some time. And that day in the loft, he had found himself comparing her with Serena, and for the first time his golden girl had come off worse. Where Serena was flighty, indecisive and a just a little bit too involved in the various dramas of her own life, Blair could always be relied upon to be Blair, yet was always willing to put her own life on hold to help out those around her. Where Serena had the knack of attracting friends, Blair was the one able to keep them together, whether by her mother-lioness-like defence of their interests or by the way she was able to mandate their attendance at a festive season dinner before they all departed to pursue their separate holiday plans. Where Serena was fluctuating in her affections, Blair tended to be strong and committed in her attachments. Not that he didn't still care for Serena; but experience had given him a better understanding of her faults, and knocked her down from the pedestal he once put her on.

It wasn't that the episode with Juliet had made Dan aware of Blair's better qualities, it was just that it had given him a new appreciation of them. Yet there had been really nothing new to their situation: Juliet was simply another name on the list of people Blair and Dan had teamed up against to protect Serena – Georgina, Carter, William Van der Woodsen. Perhaps that was why it had been so easy to spend time with Blair the previous week. Why, despite her barbed comments, he had found himself enjoying her company.

Washing dishes by her side after dinner had been unnaturally natural. They had slid easily through conversation topics. Discussing Nanette had led Dan to question Blair about her time in Paris, only to discover that all her favourite places were the places he most wanted to visit. Her mention of a particular book store had led to a discussion of their favourite French authors, which had led to a discussion of books generally, which had led to the astonishing realisation that Blair's taste in literature was more like his own than even Vanessa's had been. (Comparison to Serena in this regard wasn't even really possible as she wasn't much of a reader.) Discussion of books had logically led to a discussion of book-to-film adaptations, then discussion of films generally, until before they knew it they were back to talking about Nanette.

Then Blair had said something that had shocked the hell out of him.

"Since it seems we are the only two people left in Manhattan I suppose I could be generous and save you from the social awkwardness of going alone by letting you accompany me," Blair had informed him condescendingly, her nose scrunched up. (Rather cutely.) "But you would have to pay for the popcorn," she had continued hastily, as he sent her a sheepish grin.

"I don't know, Waldorf, I'm more of a crisps man myself," he had teased her comfortably.

Blair had rolled her eyes. "Of course you are," she had replied, heaving a melodramatic sigh, which seemed to imply such an inappropriate snack choice was only to be expected from such a classless individual. "But popcorn is a movie food and when I go to a movie that's what I eat."

She had looked up at him then with a challenge in her eyes and he had instinctively stepped closer. He had been about to speak but admiring the too-rare sparkle in her eyes had momentarily distracted him.

"So what do you say, Cabbage Patch?" He wasn't sure, but he though her breath may have hitched a little at the end.

He had stepped back, grinning. "How could I refuse such a gracious command," he had responded.

Then Blair had started lecturing him about the proper care of wine glasses again, and Dan hadn't been able to resist showing her the way he was able to juggle three of Chuck's hotel's precious goblets, despite her loud shrieks to be careful. When he had pretended he was about to drop one only to catch it with his foot though she had seemed suitably impressed and burst out laughing. She had then told him that if a self-indulgent literary career didn't pan out, at least he had a back-up in street performing.

Despite her acerbic wit (or maybe because of it), he left feeling more light-hearted then he had in months. When he got home he had immediately sat down and had written ten whole pages of a new novella.

Dan decided he should take Blair to a 4pm session - late enough to avoid screaming children, and hopefully early enough to avoid the unpleasant sight of couples canoodling on dates.

When she saw Dan's name light up her cell screen, it was if it had lit up something inside her as well.

Blair prided herself on being an independent woman, one perfectly capable of having a good time with only herself (and occasionally Dorota) for company. But she couldn't help feeling a little abandoned when Dan revealed that they would be the only ones left in Manhattan over the festive season. Even her mother and Cyrus had gone away to spend Hanukah with Cyrus's family in Florida.

Blair knew Dan had meant to reassure her when he told her not to worry about him calling or bothering her over the holiday. She had nodded and given him a strained smile, knowing she could not very well tell him that what actually bothered her was the thought of _not_ seeing him.

In a million years, she would never admit she actually enjoyed his company. That despite her protests and complaints, when she was with him she actually had _fun_. Sometimes Blair struggled to remember the last time she had honest, uncomplicated fun.

To her, plotting was always fun, especially as a team sport. Hanging out with Dan the other week to take Juliet down had reminded her of the fun she used to have plotting with Chuck in the pre-limo sex days. She wondered if Dan would become her fall-back plotting partner if things continued to be weird between her and that Basstard now he was off cavorting with New Zealand skanks in the rainforest. In a way, Dan had proved a more reliable plotting partner than old Chuck, who she had occasionally lost mid-plot when he was distracted by some girl with too little brains and too much skin showing.

It had even been fun cooking the dinner with Dan after he had shopped and set the table. She told him she would be fine to cook the dinner herself, but he had insisted on taking a 'supervisory' role. Blair knew he had doubted her culinary abilities, assuming that because she was a UES princess she wasn't also an addict of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson's cooking specials. But while Nate, Chuck and Serena might have been so hopelessly inept in the kitchen that she did not even bother asking for their help, Blair Waldorf was a true domestic goddess. Since she was little Dorota had taught her how to make a new dish every time her mother had gone away in order to cheer her up. Due to the number of business trips Eleanor went on, Blair now had an impressive culinary repertoire. Well, she had put paid to Dan's scepticism, which he had had to admit was delicious. But even though his advice had been unnecessary, his company in the kitchen had not been unwelcome.

So, though it pained her to admit it, part of her had been secretly disappointed when Dan had told her he wouldn't be seeking her company out over the holiday. In an attempt to re-establish the social order she had snippily told him that he was not to sit next to her if they happened to meet up at the obscure film they both surprisingly wanted to see. Then she caught herself thinking that it might actually be quite nice to see the film with someone who could appreciate Nanette's story, and was not just going along to humour her, and she had found herself leading the conversation back around to films until she had an opportunity to invite/inform him to come with her.

Her pleasure at seeing that he was calling her the very next day to follow through on their plan meant she did not even wait the appropriate number of rings (four) before answering his call.

As each of them made their way to the cinema they nevertheless assured themselves that today was a one-off. For friendliness's sake they would see the film together and then go their separate ways.

Of course, the film was so good they had to get coffee afterwards to discuss it. Then because it was around dinnertime it was natural for Dan to suggest they get something to eat at a little Italian place he knew called Amicis. While Blair was initially sceptical that such a 'quaint' spot could offer anything she would enjoy, she had quickly fallen in love with the restaurant, and its owners, the Viscontis, a warm and friendly elderly couple who had been married for almost fifty years. They had regaled Blair and Dan with stories of the difficulties of their courtship as the pair lingered over their coffee until closing. (Roberto had initially dated Gianna's older sister, during which time Gianna had tortured him, and it had taken him two years to realise that Gianna was the girl for him. Then it had taken him almost as long to convince Gianna of the fact.)

As they parted ways outside the Waldorfs' building, neither had thought twice about making plans to see another film that had been advertised before _Nanette_ and which they both wanted to see.

That was how Blair and Dan fell easily into a series of outings. Mostly to movies, although they had also taken in a new exhibit of Korean art at the Met and gone skating – at Blair's insistence – in Central Park. Afterwards there was always coffee and often a meal at Amicis, where the Viscontis had taken a strong liking to them, often pressing them to accept food they hadn't ordered but which the couple insisted they must try.

Blair told him he need not keep coming with her if he wanted to work on his writing. Dan smiled wryly and told her not to worry. In between their outings it seemed the words were just pouring out of him.

They had gone to the restaurant for dinner again after watching a Humphrey Bogart double bill (_The Big Sleep _and _Casablanca)_.

"Signora Visconti, that was absolutely delicious," Blair had enthused when the restauranter came to collect their plates. Dan had been quick to add his agreement.

Gianna smiled at their praise of her husband's cooking. "You are both very sweet," she told them. "And you are very much like me when I was your age," she said, turning to Blair. "You wouldn't think it to look at me now, but I was a real hot mama back then. Had all the boys in Varese running after me. But in the end I settled on Roberto because he was the sweet one. Sometimes when you're young, you don't value a sweet disposition. You want glamour and excitement. You want fireworks. But trust me, when you get older you just want someone to be there when you're feeling lousy. Or when you got a big pile of washing up to do," Gianna stared piercingly at Dan before turning to Blair once more. "Blair, my husband says he will be honoured to teach you the secret of our pine nut pesto if you come back to the kitchen one day. You can cook, yes?"

Before Blair could answer, Dan replied for her. "Yeah, don't let the manicure or pearls fool you. Blair makes a pumpkin pie that is even better than my Dad's homemade waffles and her mushroom risotto might even be better than my chilli."

"My risotto can kick your chilli's behind any day of the week, Humphrey," Blair grinned back.

"Hmmph," replied Gianna with a twinkle in her eye. "My husband was going to teach you to cook because food is the surest way to a man's heart. But it seems you may have already captured a good one, sì?"

Dan and Blair both began to laugh embarrassedly and shake their heads, Blair waving her hands for emphasis.

"Oh no, no, no, I'm just hanging out with him as part of an outreach program for the socially challenged," Blair explained.

"Actually, I agreed to keep an eye on her over the Christmas season at the behest of her sponsor. The holidays can be a difficult time for retail addicts," Dan corrected.

Gianna raised her eyebrows dramatically. "Really? Because you always certainly look like a happy couple," she said knowingly before sweeping off to the next table.

Blair and Dan stared at each other awkwardly for a second.

"Well, that's just ridiculous," Blair finally trilled.

Dan made an uncomfortable laughing/coughing noise. "Absolutely. Funniest thing I've heard in a long time."

"I mean you and I? As a couple? We can barely stop bickering long enough to eat our food," Blair said nervously.

"Right. We're always arguing," Dan nodded with a smile. "Except of course about the merits of French cinema. And the transcendence of George Eliot's work. Nineteenth-century fiction in general. The whole Jon Stewart versus Stephen Colbert debate."

"Right. But no rational-thinking person would argue over those things anyway," Blair countered.

There was a pause.

"Blair, look I know you and I as a couple would never work, for obvious reasons. But I do want you to know how much I've enjoyed spending time with you these past few weeks," Dan stared down at his hands before looking back up at Blair. Even if she played it off with one of her usual sarcastic comments he had to let her know. Because deep down he knew how vulnerable she was, whether she admitted to caring what he thought about her or not. "Feel free to begin mocking me now."

Blair bit her lip and sent him a small smile. "You make it so easy for me to do," she said, and as he laughed she leant over and put her hand on his. "But I've had fun too, Dan. That isn't something I get to do often."

"So what happens when the new semester starts? Are you going to go back to ignoring my existence whenever you're not belittling it?" Dan asked, trying to make it sound like a joke, as if he didn't really care.

Blair frowned. "I don't know. I guess I thought when Nate and Serena and your Dad got back to town you wouldn't really have much time for me anymore. Are you saying you want to keep hanging out?"

"Well, I could see certain benefits to it," Dan temporised. "You're less hungry and snappish after hanging out with me. My wardrobe's improved. You have someone who can appreciate your extensive knowledge of Latin quotations. I can almost figure-skate a double eight now."

Blair giggled. "It would be helpful to have you around in case I need a plotting partner. For a relative novice, you are surprisingly effective."

"That's because my role normally consists of agreeing with you and putting your plan into action."

Blair raised her glass to him. "Humphrey, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Dan clinked his glass to hers in toast.

_Please read and review if you would like me to continue._


	2. Blair and Dan go shopping

According to Blair, they have to anoint their new-found friendship with a celebratory shopping trip. Well, it's partly that, and also with Dorota on vacation she needs someone to carry her bags to the town car.

Dan groaningly agrees. He has Christmas gifts of his own to buy anyway.

As they move through shop after shop Dan is surprised – not just by Blair's shopping stamina – but by how much fun he is having.

Even despite the fact that Blair nags him about his poor taste in everything from clothes to CDs.

She tells him that it's going to be very hard to buy him a Christmas gift, because she doesn't know what area of his life to go about improving first. But it is said with good humour, and Dan gives back as good as he gets. Besides, he likes the way Blair's eyes sparkle when she teases him.

They spend ages in the book store, ostensibly to buy presents for his father and all three of hers, but they get caught up in enthusing over their favourites and recommending ones that the other has not read. Blair buys two of Dan's recommendations, and he buys three of hers.

She blushes when he catches her looking in the paperback romance section, and then informs him caustically that she is looking for Dorota. When he pretends to disbelieve her, she tells him about the historical romance the maid had lent her a few weeks before. Dan tells her that he's not averse to a little romantic escapism himself, but argues that it's better to indulge with one of the truly epic romances. Blair then drags him to the Penguin classics to pick out some greats of romantic literature to give to Dorota for Christmas.

Blair automatically reaches for the Brontë sisters, and her favourite, _Wuthering Heights_.

Dan shakes his head sceptically. "Personally I could never see the appeal of Cathy and Heathcliff. They're both selfish and unsympathetic characters that don't even seem to learn much from their experiences."

Blair tsked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "For a writer you have a very unpoetic soul. There is something elemental and stirring in the tragedy of their whole romance. And I love the sense of destiny, of fate, as if nothing they do can keep them apart. Even after death, they feel the pull toward one another."

Blair doesn't add that _Wuthering Heights _became her favourite nineteenth-century novel after she and Chuck began the cat-and-mouse game that had been their relationship in senior year. Chuck might not have been the prince Blair had always dreamed of but he could have effortlessly fulfilled the role of Brontë's Byronic hero. The similarities made her hope that there was something meant-to-be about them, as well.

"But they don't even end up together, not really. Cathy would have been much better off if she had stuck to Linton," Dan pierces her reflections.

"How can you say that? The guy is a dead bore, a cipher."

"He might not have been as _dark _or _mysterious _as Heathcliff, but he was a good guy who loved Cathy. He was the one who took care of her, remember, when Heathcliff left."

Blair rolls her eyes but puts the book back down. "Then which do you suggest?" she asks in a patronisingly saccharine voice.

Dan picks up the collected works of Jane Austen. "Dorota would probably prefer happily-ever-after stories anyway. And if you want that, you can't pass up Jane Austen."

"Ugh. I hated _Emma_."

"Okay, how could _you _hate _Emma_? Spoilt society darling ruthlessly manages the lives of those around her supposedly for their own good. It's like the nineteenth-century version of your life."

"Yeah, then she marries this bossy know-it-all, who's so self-righteously smug she probably would have ended up strangling him with his own neckcloth if the book had ever had a sequel."

"That is a seriously warped view of their relationship. Mr Knightley had the maturity Emma needed to keep her grounded."

"Mmmph. Well I suppose she would have had the satisfaction of keeping him twisted in knots once they married." She flashed him her most deviously sweet grin. "A pretty woman can always keep even the most aggravatingly superior man on his toes."

"Don't I know it," Dan whispered under his breath.

Blair looked down at the Austen collection. "I suppose Dorota would enjoy this. I did like _Pride and Prejudice_. Though in _my_ experience first impressions are rarely wrong."

Dan grinned. "Huh. Do I want to know what you thought the first time you met me?"

"I seem to recall the words 'butt' and 'head' featured prominently."

Dan laughed appreciatively as they made their way to the checkout counter.

(Blair doesn't tell him that way before he had ever become involved with Serena, back in freshman year when she had seen him for the first time, what she had actually thought was that he had a nice head of hair and a really, _really_ nice butt. Then of course she had found out he was from Brooklyn.)

Blair decides to stop this unhealthy thought in its track by introducing a new conversation topic.

"So...how's the writing going?" she asked nonchalantly, as she picked out two giant-sized candy canes.

Dan shook his head. "Unbelievable. It's like I've gone from months of drought to this sudden flood of ideas. Right now it's mostly separate scenes set around the same characters, but in the end I think I might be able to work it into some sort of novella."

Blair rolled her eyes, as she passed Dan one of the candy canes. She had already unwrapped hers and began sucking the end, seemingly oblivious to the way this made Dan and every other guy in a ten-metre radius zero in on the sight of her lush mouth with painful longing. And it wasn't the candy cane he wanted.

"Hmmm. And I'm guessing the heroine of all this inspired work is blonde, vivacious and has the intoxicating laugh of a four-year-old child," Blair commented wryly.

Dan had to shake his head and turn away from the sight of Blair's lips wrapped around the candy in order to be able to concentrate enough to answer. "Uh...no actually. I decided to break out of the box a bit, try to create some new characters."

Blair glanced at Dan curiously. "So what are they like?"

"Well, the heroine is this really feisty, self-satisfied girl who has these surprising moments of vulnerability. And she's always being dragged into these troubling situations. Then there's this nice, normal guy who she meets by chance but who somehow keeps letting himself get dragged into trouble with her."

"And they fall in love," Blair nodded understandingly.

Dan looked shocked by the thought. "What? Oh, no. They're these complete opposites. They sort of become friends though, I guess. Meanwhile, she's always falling passionately in love with these other guys who end up being no good for her. That's part of the reason she's always getting dragged into trouble."

Blair nodded. "That can happen."

"Anyway, it would be great but right now I'm still doing most of my writing on our old kitchen table. I've been meaning to convert Vanessa's old room into an office."

Blair made a face at the mentioned of her most hated Brooklynite. "Please, do not tell me you've been putting it off because you can't bear to admit she's really not coming back. The only thing sadder than dating Vanessa Abrahms, is mourning Vanessa Abrahms."

Dan grinned involuntarily, wondering if he should defend his former girlfriend/best friend and deciding it wasn't worth it. "It's not that. After her role in the whole Juliet debacle, I don't know if we'll even be able to salvage a friendship, let alone wanting to re-kindle our relationship. I just can't decide how I want the room to look. It should be a reflection of me, I guess."

"Ugh, what a horrifying thought! And if you decorate that room in plaid overtones, I don't care what the emergency is, I'm never crossing the bridge again."

Dan chuckled. "Well, orange is supposed to be the colour of communication. I was thinking if I painted the wall facing my desk that colour it might inspire me to write."

Blair's forehead creased. "More likely inspire you to throw up. Well, it's obvious what I'm going to have to get you for Christmas."

"Oh," Dan smiled mockingly, "please, do tell."

"Me," she said simply.

He paused as the image of Blair Waldorf appearing under his tree wrapped only in a big red Christmas bow flashed through his head.

"As your decorator," she clarified. "It's one of my many, many talents."

"Oh, that's okay. I'm sure I'll be fine," Dan hastened to reassure her worriedly, envisioning some high-powered, absurdly modernist parade of expensive taste masquerading as an office.

"That's the problem with your whole bourgeois attitude. You're willing to settle for mediocrity. You shouldn't be aiming for _fine_. You should be aiming for fabulous."

"Yeah, but like I said I want the room to be a reflection of my personality. Comfortable, slightly offbeat and with a quiet charm," Dan grinned as Blair laughed silently. "I mean I definitely have my fabulous moments, but it's not really an adjective one would normally pair with my name."

"Well, not in that sweater, obviously," Blair put in snidely, with a look of disdain at the offending garment. "But I could fix you a fabulous office that is still a reflection of your mundane personality."

"You're not going to stop until you get your way on this, are you?" Dan groaned resignedly.

"Hey, it's a Christmas present, Humphrey. Etiquette dictates that you shut up, and say something gracious about how it's just what you need, etc., etc.," she pointed out.

Before Dan can reply, they both become distracted by the spectacle of a nearby child in the middle of a giant tantrum.

"I wannnnaaa go home," wailed the pre-school age girl to an embarrassed yet haughty looking woman. In her Donna Karan suit and Jimmy Choos, she was obviously a UES corporate mother who had given her nanny the day off.

Dan watched as the woman struggled unsuccessfully to reason with the child by enumerating all the people she still had to buy for, and then threatened to leave the girl by herself if she continued to make a fuss. When the little girl lifted her arms for her mother to pick her up, the woman instinctively flinched back, as if she was afraid the child might crumple her couture.

As this made the child begin to wail even louder, Dan turned to Blair to suggest they move on. He was surprised to see she was no longer, at his side, but was darting over to the mother and girl.

Blair smiled at the woman. "I bet she's just cranky because it's getting close to lunchtime," Blair told her. "My mother always used to have to take a packet of crackers with us when we went shopping when I was little." She reached into her bag and pulled out small package. "See, I still carry some with me, just in case I feel a mood swing coming on. May I?" Blair indicated that she wanted to give the crackers to the girl.

The mother nodded and thanked her. Her smile and thanks became more warm and genuine as the girl instantly quieted and began to suck on one of the crackers. After a few more words, Blair turned and rejoined Dan.

"Wow, that was unexpected," Dan commented as they continued through the department store. "I didn't realise you had such strong maternal instincts."

Blair glared at him. "I don't. I just can't stand crying kids."

"Did your mother really carry around crackers when you were a kid to distract you?" Dan asked curiously.

Blair looked away, tight-lipped for a moment. "No, not exactly. I don't remember Eleanor ever really taking me shopping when I was little."

"So it was your Dad then?" Dan probed.

Blair shook her head. "Dorota," she replied, before becoming intensely interested in a display of Murano glass objects.

Dan took in the sudden rigidity of her posture, her obvious desire to drop the topic. It made him feel sad and oddly helpless to think that Blair might once have been a lonely little girl like they had seen earlier, given everything that money could buy, but not the love and attention she had needed.

He could still recall the image of Blair slumped on the hallway floor of her mother's photo-shoot two years earlier. Until then he had assumed Blair was a shallow, superficial girl incapable of any deeper emotions, and unfailingly self-conceited. But seeing her looking so fragile and broken had forced him to reassess some of his pre-conceived notions.

Dan realised, with a start, that the conversation that had ensued on that day was in fact one of the clearest memories he possessed. He could picture in his mind every facet of Blair's face, every expression that had flitted across it – how red her lips had been, how big her eyes had seemed with unshed tears, the way she had her legs folded beneath. Details he had barely been conscious of registering at the time were somehow burned into his brain.

It was odd and unsettling, because Dan suddenly realised it was not the only memory of Blair he could recall with equal clarity. Pictures he did not even know he had been taking through the years flitted through his mind's eye – Blair leaning on a counter next to him in a red-and-white polka dot dress, Blair holding his hand as she dragged him across the rooftop to meet 'the Lord', Blair looking lost as she spoke about Chuck, Blair glaring at him during their performance of _Age of Innocence_, Blair in a green dress and hat psyched because they were about to bury Baizen, Blair in her headband, Blair once again taking his hand as he led her onto the dance floor after instinctively placing himself between her and Chuck. The look of dawning horror and heartbreak in her eyes after he had socked Chuck in the jaw again.

It seemed strange that his memories of Blair should be so strong, when Dan knew that, in contrast, his memories of Serena, his lifelong obsession, tended to be blurry and indistinct. Dan knew that when he was with Serena everything about her seemed to be vibrant and vital. Yet when she was gone, his sense of her seemed to fade away, like the effervescence fizzing out from champagne. In contrast, Blair was like a finely matured red wine. Subtle at the time, but with lingering after-effects that revealed a hidden potency.

Dan shook his head, perhaps to dispel the troubling images of Blair, or his sudden doubts about resuming his relationship with Serena, or both.

At any rate, he recalled himself to the moment to say, "Well, if you're going to be giving me a gift in the form of expertise that I didn't ask for or want, I think I'll give you a gift in kind."

Blair turned to him, a frown creasing her forehead, "What do you mean?"

"I'm going to teach you how to drive."

"I don't think so, Humphrey."

"It's not an offer, it's a gift. You can't refuse."

"But there's an important difference between our gifts, Humphrey. You _need_ to have your room re-decorated. I _don't need _to learn how to drive. I have a car service. Besides, which, I'm usually within walking distance of almost anywhere I would want to go."

"It's etiquette Blair, you have to accept my gift graciously and thankfully. Besides, just think, next time we have to roadtrip to Connecticut you can share in the driving, rather than just making obnoxious comments about mine."

Blair huffed a sigh. "Fine. I have always thought I would like cute behind the wheel of one of those little red Aston Martins."

As they continue to shop, Dan realises that while he had called Blair spoilt, it is also obvious that she enjoys spoiling others. He wondered if Dorota and Vanya would even be able to find room for all the baby clothes and toys Blair had bought for Anastacia, not to mention her gifts to the couple themselves.

Blair makes them stop to admire every Christmas display, 'oohing' and 'ahing' like a little child, and somehow her enthusiasm is infectious.

She grabs his hand to drag him to see the Christmas carollers and somehow it feels natural to stand there, his hand still clasping hers.

When she turns to him with undisguised merriment lighting up her brown eyes, he can't help but recall his earlier image of her as a Christmas present. It is what she looks like at the moment, with her red beret sitting jauntily atop her flowing brunette curls, in her little green dress and warm, red jacket. Dan is still smiling down at her, lost in the thought, when unbeknownst to them a camera phone flashed behind them, capturing the touching image.

_Gossip Girl here. Blair and Dan holding hands, and making plans. We thought these two would be all broken up with S and C out of town over the break, but it looks like they've found a little Christmas cheer of their own. But what will Serena think of her bff and not-so-ex bf looking so cosy? You know you love me, especially at the holidays, xoxo, Gossip Girl._

Dan and Blair smile ruefully at the blast when it appears. For the rest of the afternoon Blair notices Dan repeatedly checking his phone, doubtlessly wondering whether the blast will provoke a reaction from Serena. Blair wonders if she should send a text to Serena to clarify that there was nothing behind the photo. But then she thinks that would only make a big deal out of something unimportant. Serena will call her if she's worried about the blast.

Blair also checks her messages a number of times. She wonders what cell phone reception is like in the New Zealand rainforest, then curses herself for caring.

As they check their messages for the tenth time simultaneously over coffee, they suddenly catch each others' eyes and grimace at each other.

"So, have you heard from her lately?" Blair asked curiously.

"A text message to say that she was on the road, then nothing," Dan shrugged.

"Same. You know what she's like. She gets caught up in whatever she's doing in the moment," Blair offered half-apologetically.

Dan nodded. "Have you heard from him?" There is just a tinge of anger in the way he pronounces the last word.

"No. He has his rainforest skanks to keep him occupied I guess," Blair quipped acerbically. "And besides, it's better that we have limited contact. It's too...distracting...when we both know we can't be together right now."

Dan looked unconvinced. "But it's not the first time the two of you have been in this position. You keep thinking that it's the timing that's wrong, but have you ever thought that maybe it's just the two of you together that's wrong?"

Blair sighed. "Of course, I've thought that. But the thing is, Chuck's the only guy whose ever seen the real me, and loved me for it. It's not easy to walk away from that."

As he saw the sadness in Blair's eyes Dan instinctively wrapped an arm around her shoulders in comfort. "Look, despite everything that has happened between the two of you, and what _I_ personally think of him, I don't doubt that Chuck loves you. The question is though, does he love you enough? Enough that you matter to him more than his own self, his own ego, his own hang-ups. Because that's what you deserve. And he can either give you that or he can't. And if he can't, then perhaps you need to walk away for real."

And suddenly Blair is sobbing in his arms as they sit side by side on a cafe bench. Crying out all the misery and heartache and things left unsaid over the past months.

When she has calmed and quietened, she tries to explain it to him. "You see, I've been trying so hard all this time, not to let him see how much he hurt me, not to let him see how much he's still hurting me. Because I don't want him to have this power over me. I don't want to be weak."

Dan patted her arm soothingly, and gently shook his head. "Blair, you're not the weak one. Don't you see how amazingly strong it makes you? That you can love so deeply? Feel so strongly? I don't know if I've ever had that...intensity...of emotion."

Blair resists the urge to ask him what he thinks that means about the true strength of his feelings for Serena. Instead she pulls on her sunglasses, and smiles brightly, the sudden storm of emotion having passed.

They make plans for the following day. Blair, after finally agreeing that it would be difficult to actually decorate a room without seeing it, acquiesces to his suggestion that she come to Brooklyn. They will hang out at the loft, get started on his office, and maybe hang up a few Christmas ornaments.

As they part ways, both feel more emotionally than physically drained from their gruelling shopping expedition. Yet there is also a sense of happiness, and hope, as they each go home to ponder, and think, and dream.

_I love detailed feedback, so please read and review._


	3. Blair and Dan get high

Blair, feeling sheepish about her outburst the day before, decides that the best thing to do is ignore it completely, and make sure Dan does too. She decides the best way to achieve this is by keeping him fully occupied with the conversion of Scruffyrella's old room into an office.

Ordering him around all day might also help restore the natural dynamic of their relationship.

It had felt too easy, too natural - too good -being so close to him yesterday. And that was dangerous.

Not because (or just because) he was Dan frigging Humphrey, who lived in Brooklyn, and rode the subway and had all these annoying _morals_ and_ ideals_. (After three and a half years she had finally managed to see past these inconvenient qualities to the semi-likable humanoid beneath.) It was dangerous because he was her best friend's ex-boyfriend/step-brother/possibly quite soon boyfriend once more. There were boundaries that needed to be kept in place.

But Serena had always wanted the two of them to be friends. If Serena and Humphrey did make up again after she returned from her crusade for justice, S would be thrilled that Blair no longer found the prospect of having to spend time with him as distasteful as having to share the streets with the crowds of mid-west tourists who had the temerity to invade the city at this time of year. Blair could see several of them, cameras slung around their necks and goofy smiles on their faces, from the window of her town car as it made its way to the outer-boroughs.

The truth was that spending time with Dan was far from horrendous. It was kind of enjoyable, in a shameful, eating-the-bits-of-cold-lasagne-that-had-got-stuck-to-the-baking-tray way. And when Serena came back, they would now all be able to hang out, just like her best friend had always wanted.

Instead of reassuring her though, the idea of having to be around a back-together and in-love Derena filled Blair with anxiety, for a reason she would not name.

Dan is woken up by an insistent buzzing noise. Somehow, maybe because she manages to infuse it with an extra note of imperiousness, he knows it is Blair before answering the door.

"Wha? What's happened?" Dan asks blearily, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Let me guess? Serena's been arrested again? Or Nate's run up some huge gambling debt and the bookie is threatening to break his legs? Or Eric's run off to join a Vegas revue? There must be some kind of emergency for you to wake me up this early, right?"

Blair suppressed a smirk at the sight of Dan Humphrey with bed hair sticking up every which way.

"Believe me, if I'd known what a sight you are first thing in the morning I would have called ahead to make sure you had time to make yourself presentable. Or at least as presentable as a Humphrey can be," Blair quipped, even as she thought that just-woken-up-Dan actually looked pretty cute all messy and confused-like. "I told you I'd be coming over this morning."

"I thought by morning, you meant ten-thirty, eleven even," Dan groaned, reaching for his watch. "Not, geez, seven-thirty am."

"Eleven o'clock is practically afternoon! Decorating is a process, you can't just squeeze it in between your mid-morning facial and afternoon pedicure."

"Yes, because that ishow I normally structure my days."

"Well, do whatever passes for good grooming in your world and get dressed. We need to go examine paint swatches. I've brought some catalogues with me, and already marked some pieces that I think would fit the 'look' we're trying to achieve. You can study them on the way, it might help us decide on a motif for the room and thus a colour for the walls..."

Blair paused mid-harangue as she realised Dan was quietly banging his head against the door.

"Trying to lose your few remaining brain cells?"

"Trying to shake loose the reason I ever agreed to this."

"Don't be such a baby. This will be fun," Blair enthused.

"I was up until two am writing, at which point I fell asleep at the kitchen table."

"All the more reason to get your new office in place. I was already thinking it should have a chaise – next time you can fall asleep on that and maybe you won't wake ups so grumpy," Blair chided. "In the meantime, I've brought coffee and chocolate croissants. Will that help your mood?"

Dan immediately perked up at the mention of a double dose of caffeine. He speedily got dressed, dragged Blair away from her measurement-taking and down to the car to the promised sustenance.

Dan was surprised as he focused on the catalogues Blair was showing him that the furnishings she had highlighted were exactly the things that he would have picked for himself, if he could have been bothered to go to the effort of leafing through dozens of store catalogues, rather than just making a one-shop stop at IKEA. They were classic but comfortable pieces, and while eclectic would complement each other well.

After Blair had made Dan examine literally hundreds of paint colours, (Dan had never realised that there were so many shades of cream , or that a person – ie Blair – could be fervently in favour of some while zealously in opposition to others), they finally decided on an eggshell blue for the walls and a Blair-approved cream for the trim.

But before they could complete their purchases, they of course had to do battle about how the paint was going to get on the walls. Blair had taken it for granted that she and Dan would buy the paint and then hire 'people' to put it on the walls for them, under Blair's supervision of course. Dan was adamant that he would be painting the room himself, and that as Blair had insisted on horning in on the whole re-decorating scheme, the least she could do was make herself useful with a paintbrush. She finally gave in with bad grace.

After lunch at a nearby cafe, during which Dan managed to get Blair to admit that it appeared there was at least one establishment in Brooklyn that served a passable nicoise salad and vegetable stack, the two parted ways. Blair had to go home to change, as she wasn't about to get paint on her Marc Jacobs dress, and told Dan to get set up and begin applying the undercoat.

Dan thought that she might perhaps quail at the prospect of having to wield a paintbrush and half-suspected her not to come back.

But she arrived back in a little under an hour, after he had only just made a start.

She was wearing jeans and a soft, fuzzy red sweater. Tight jeans and a tight red sweater, her dark curls pulled into a loose side pony tail.

As an objective observer, Dan had always been aware of Blair's beauty. But it had always been of a pristine, untouchable sort. Like she was some elegant, expensive piece in a store with a label clearly stating 'Look, don't touch'.

The Blair before him now was one he couldn't help but think about touching. He watched from the corner of his eye as she started work, reaching high to pull the paintbrush down in a long stroke, unknowingly pulling her sweater even tighter across her lush breasts and exposing a layer of soft, white skin between her jeans and her top.

Oh, yes, Dan definitely wanted to touch.

Was he seeing a new side of Blair? Or had she always been this inviting, this tempting, and he had just been too blinded by his Serena-goggles to see? And what did it mean in terms of his relationships with both girls that now he _was_ seeing?

"Quit your staring, Humphrey. I've got enough stalkers already, thank you very much."

Blair had finally noticed the way he was looking at her. Or rather her jean-covered butt. She hoped he wasn't thinking she was fat. There was a reason she hardly ever wore pants. Her mother had once told her she should avoid them, as there was no reason to draw attention to something that wasn't her best feature.

"Sorry," Dan said automatically. "I've just never seen you in jeans before. I guess you're really slumming it now."

Blair snorted. "Huh, dream on, Humphrey. They're still designer."

Dan shook his head. "Only you would wear designer jeans while painting. What if you spill something on them?"

"Dorota is a marvel with stains. Besides, I'm not going to spill anything. It's all in the application. I don't make a mess of myself, unlike some people." Blair gestured to Dan, who already had several splodges of paint on his t-shirt, jeans and shoes.

"Yeah, but what if I was to 'accidentally' spill paint on you?" Dan teased, moving closer to her while flourishing his wet paintbrush menacingly.

"You wouldn't," Blair said darkly.

Dan flicked the paint at her from his brush.

Blair was silent for a full five seconds after the paint landed on her sweater. Dan was deathly afraid that he had made a terrible mistake, that she would be so enraged she would storm out and their tentative friendship would be broken, and he knew suddenly that he wouldn't be able to stand that.

"Blair, I'm sor..."

A glob of paint landed on the side of his face.

Then it was on. Blair giggled as Dan chased her round the room and she flicked paint back at him. It was the most childish, most fun thing she had done in years.

Eventually, they returned to painting the walls, rather than each other. When they had finished, they agreed it looked pretty good for a first coat.

Then they had a problem, as their clothes both still had wet patches of paint on them.

"We're going to get paint all over the rest of the house if we wander around like this for the rest of the afternoon," Dan said.

"Would that matter?" Blair asked. "I mean would odd splotches of paint really look out of place in the overall decor?"

But because she didn't want to risk any paint drying in her hair or on her skin, Blair agreed to take a shower and get changed into an old, extra-large sweatshirt of Dan's.

As Blair showered, Dan had to work very hard to control the images he suddenly had running through his brain, of naked soaped up skin in need of tender ministrations. He had never thought he'd live to see the day when Blair Waldorf was showering at his loft. Or emerging from his bathroom dressed in his clothes.

He'd been hoping that clad in a baggy sweatshirt rather than tight jeans, the aura of sexual allure around Blair would have been dispelled somewhat, thus making it easier and less confusing to be around her. Instead she looked impossibly erotic, as if she had just rolled out of bed after a day of making love and had pulled on her lover's sweatshirt. And while Blair was only of middling stature, she suddenly seemed to have an awful lot of unclothed leg.

"Uh, I've put your things in the wash," Dan muttered, slightly dazed. "Guess I better hit the shower too." He sped away quickly before Blair could see how tight his jeans had become.

He came out to find appetizing smells coming from the kitchen, and Blair starting to hang up Christmas decorations.

"You had steak and mushrooms so I thought I'd do a beef stroganoff," Blair told him. "It will have to simmer for a while."

"Great," Dan nodded. "Perfect for keeping out the winter weather."

"Exactly," Blair smiled at him. A genuine smile, not a smirk, and suddenly the loft seemed very quiet as they stared into each other's eyes.

Blair ended the unsettling moment as she remembered something she had been meaning to tell him.

"There was a package addressed to both of us when I got home yesterday afternoon. It didn't come through the mail; someone must have dropped it off. It's on the bench."

Dan dragged his eyes away from Blair's, and went over to pick up the brown paper package, marked simply 'Blair and Dan'.

"Huh," he said. "That's weird. Gives me kind of a creepy feeling. You don't think Georgina could be back in town, do you?"

"One way to find out," Blair said. As he continued to stare at the package ominously, she continued "Hurry up and end the suspense already, Humphrey!"

Dan opened the package to reveal a small, sealed bag of a herbal substance and a note.

"Thanks again for the ride back to the city," it read. "Hope this will make your holidays a little happier. Damien."

"Well, that was unexpected," Dan said. "When I did up my Christmas list this year, I didn't even think to include the drug dealer my sister pretended to lose her virginity to."

"He must have been higher than a kite when he dropped this off," Blair said. She opened up the bag and sniffed it delicately. "Primo stuff. He's obviously filled with Christmas cheer. Or some sort of cheer."

"Have you smoked a lot of pot?" Dan asked curiously.

"No," Blair replied. "But I've been around Chuck and Nate long enough to know the good stuff. They got me to try it once when I was about fourteen. Then they made fun of me for coughing so much that I didn't try it again." She turned to him, "How about you?"

"No. Sadly, not because of my high moral fibre, but because I've simply never been offered any."

Blair snorted. "Of course you haven't, Lonely Boy."

Dan nudged her suggestively and gestured to the bag. "I'm not feeling lonely right now."

Blair bit her lip. "Okay, but you can't laugh at me if I start coughing. And if I get the munchies, you have to promise to restrain me if I decide to eat all the Christmas cookies."

Blair rolled them both a thick joint while Dan found them a lighter.

They continued to smoke and chat while Blair stirred the stroganoff and Dan kept hanging up Christmas lights. Eventually, the high took over and Dan found he couldn't concentrate on such a high-powered task, so he rejoined Blair in the kitchen. They kept talking and laughing, as everything they said suddenly seemed very, very funny.

"The Christmas lights look so pretty," Blair giggled dreamily.

"You're pretty," Dan sighed, reaching out to stroke her face as she began to dish up the food.

"Oh, I have special olive oil to go with the bread in my bag. I forgot all about it," Blair suddenly squealed, racing out of the room.

Suddenly there was a strange ringing sound in the kitchen. It took Dan a second to realise what it was. He finally spotted Blair's phone on the counter and answered it.

"Bed, bath and beyond," Dan said into the receiver.

There was a pause at the other end.

Finally a voice said gruffly, "You have five seconds to tell me who the hell you are and what the hell you're doing with Blair Waldorf's phone."

"Christ, you want to take the mafia boss impression down a touch, Bass. You know, I think you're getting real crabby in your old age," Dan reflected.

"Is that you Humphrey?"

"The one and only. So what have I done to merit a call from the great Chuck Bass?"

"I wasn't calling you, I was calling Blair. Why do you have her phone?" Chuck bit off each word carefully, as if they were costing him a great effort to say.

"She's getting a special oil. You know even though I didn't really like you much, in high school you still seemed like a fairly normal teenage. Well, by UES standards. Then overnight, you started wearing these really depressing-looking suits. And suspenders! What teenager wears suspenders? You used to have that mysterious moody thing going on, but now I think you just seem crotchety, you know?"

Chuck struggled with his anger. He had called Blair to wish her a merry Christmas. He assumed that she would be alone and delighted that he was checking in. The knowledge that instead she was with an obnoxious, obviously off-his-face Dan Humphrey did not sit well. Especially when she had apparently left the room to get some kind of oil. (He knew very well that Blair had a thing for massage oils, especially the kind that got hot when you blew on them, or tasted like strawberries and champagne.)

"Do you think it would be possible for me to speak to Blair?" Chuck drawled surlily.

"Well, sure, why didn't you say so in the first place," Den replied as Blair came back into the room.

"Chuck's on the phone for you," he said as he passed it over.

"Chuckles!" Blair giggled.

"Blair," Chuck said carefully. "I was calling to wish you a Happy Holidays. What are you doing hanging out with Dan Humphrey?"

"He's hired me to be his personal interior decorator. This place is going to look so good when I'm done that I may even come out here when I'm not under duress. And the fairy lights make everything look so pretty and romantic! They're like all shiny and they twinkle like lights. Pretty," Blair said, becoming distracted as she reached out to admire said lights.

"Why do you both sound high?"

"It was a Christmas present," Blair replied. "Although what I really could have used was some new clothes. Dan's sweatshirt itches."

While Chuck went very still and quiet at the other end, Blair was distracted by the sight of Dan hoeing into the food. "Hey, wait for me," she called. Blair giggled into the phone, "Sorry, Chuck, I have to go. Looks like Dan's starting without me. I want to get into it while it's still hot."

Chuck stared at his phone in confusion and anger after Blair disconnected. He had scoffed at the Gossip Girl blast of Dan and Blair together, assuming it had been taken out of context. Blair would never willingly hang out with, let alone enjoy, Dan Humphrey's company. They must have accidentally bumped into each other. And the happy look on Blair's face as she stared up at him must have been because she had just scored a point off him by some witty remark about his boy band haircut or lumberjack fashion sense.

Now Chuck was being forced to reassess the situation. The idea of Dan and Blair together didn't make any type of sense to him. She must be stringing him along just to get on Chuck's nerves, maybe make him jealous. Well, two could play at that game.

Nevertheless, some kind of damage control was definitely in order. He stabbed out his best friend's number.

When Nate arrived at the loft several hours later, it was if Santa's elves had had a drunken orgy. Tinsel and fairy lights had been strewn around the room in wild abandon, and mostly in clumps, without Blair's usual artistic flourish. A strange combination of smells – the heavy aroma of some serious weed, half-burnt sugar cookies and a heady red wine that had obviously spilt onto the floor from one of several open bottles – filled the air.

But most disturbing was the sound he was met with. Because there in the middle of the living room, Blair and Dan were swaying while shout-singing to each other along to music blaring from the sound system.

_Better hang on if you're tagging along  
'Cause we'll be doing this till six in the morning_

Here Blair tried to execute a ballerina twirl and when she started to fall landed laughingly in Dan's arms while he kept signing.

_Nothing wrong with going all night long  
Time to put the brakes on, doesn't matter when you gotta_

As the pair spun around again ready to launch into the chorus, they suddenly spotted Nate in the doorway, having let himself in with his old key.

"Bro!"

"Natie!"

Nate smiled at the drunk and enthusiastic greeting.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me spending Christmas with you after all," he returned affably.

"Of course not, we need another alto," Blair said.

Soon Nate had also been put in a mellow mood. He joined Blair and Dan in a medley of _Queen_ songs, the perfect music for the high or intoxicated. And while he did so, he watched his two friends.

He had never seen Blair look this happy. And he didn't think it was just the pot.

He had been more than willing to embark on what Chuck had described as a 'mission of mercy' to save Blair from Dan Humphrey's evil clutches. Even though he had been highly sceptical of Chuck's version of events, he had been more than willing to abandon his family's festivities, which had reached a new level of awfulness in the Archibald-Van-der-bilt annals.

He had seen Blair happy before, of course. She had had moments of it with him, and even more with Chuck, but it hadn't been like this. So unrestrained, so careless. It made him momentarily sad that he hadn't been the one to bring this out in her. Then he was distracted by the twinkle lights.

Eventually the three passed out on the loft floor.

Nate was the first to be awakened, as he heard his personalised ring tone for Chuck go off on his phone. He lifted a hand to retrieve it from the coffee table.

"Yeah?" he muttered sleepily.

"You were supposed to call me when you got there."

"Oh yeah, sorry man, I kind of got distracted." Nate tried to sit up but found it difficult, as Blair had one arm flung across his chest and another across Dan's. "Blair, can you move your arm?" Nate prodded her half-asleep form until she shifted away. "Oh, that's better. Man, I'd forgotten how hot it gets sleeping with her."

Chuck was deathly quiet on the other end for a minute. "Archibald, so help me God, you better tell me what's going on right now before I put a hit out on all three of you."

"Geez, Chuck, would you chill already? You're supposed to be on vacation. And it's Christmas day, the season of goodwill, peace on earth and all that. Blair is fine. She and Dan got high on some pot they got from Damien, and we all ended up crashing on the loft floor."

"Why was she wearing his sweatshirt?"

"They were painting and her clothes got dirty."

"And the oil?"

"Oh man, it was delicious. Like the best thing I ever had. It tasted just like..."

"If you value your life, you better not say strawberries and champagne."

"No, it was like rosemary and garlic I think, tasted great on this fresh bread Blair baked. Dan and I scarfed the whole loaf when the munchies hit. That was after the karaoke. Then Blair wanted to play twister but we didn't have a board so we ended up watching cartoons until..."

"I don't want the details of your pyjama party. Are you saying there is nothing going on with Blair and Dan I should be concerned about?"

Nate hesitated. Truthfully, he thought Chuck would be concerned if he saw how close Blair and Dan had gotten. In fact, such emotional intimacy was in all likelihood more dangerous than if they had simply got high and had a one-off physical encounter. But he wasn't sure if he should tell all that to Chuck or not. His best friend was unpredictable. And Dan and Blair were his friends too. Did he really want to stand in their way, or encourage Chuck to do so, if they had a shot at happiness together?

Nate decided to go with a condensed version of the truth.

"They're just hanging out as friends." No need to add Nate could see a future in which they became a lot friendlier.

Chuck breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Do me a favour, Archibald. Try to see it stays that way." He disconnected, returning his attention to the exotic beauty at his side.

"He sent you to check up on me, didn't he?" Blair asked, having woken up enough to make out part of Nate's conversation.

Nate sighed. "I was going to come back anyway. Archibald family Christmases suck."

"What right does he have to keep tabs on me? He told me to go off and find who I am without him. And that's what I'm doing," she said angrily.

"I think he's afraid that you will find out that the person you are is someone who wants to be with someone who's not him. If that makes any kind of sense," Nate replied.

Blair snorted. "Only because I've been exposed to your limited power of expression and logic for so long." But then she turned to him and offered a small smile, "Sorry your Christmas sucked."

Nate smiled back. "It didn't because I ended up back here. We can have a great Christmas Day right?"

Blair smirked. "Well, my only other invitation was to visit some of Cyrus's relatives out in Jersey so I suppose this is marginally better. I'll start making a traditional Waldorf Christmas breakfast special if you start straightening out the decorations."

When Dan awoke Blair sent him and Nate out for some milk and other supplies.

A short while later she heard the door open again. "That was fast. I hope you managed to get the camembert because I make this great stuffing..."

Blair broke off as a mess of blonde hair suddenly came into view.

"Jenny," Blair said. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, seeing that this is my brother's house and I wasn't aware you were friends."

"Unlike you, I'm here by invitation."

"Evidently, a real high class one, given that all you're wearing is his sweatshirt" Jenny replied.

Blair blushed. "Only because you're moronic brother got paint all over my Jodarche jeans."

"No! Did it come out?" Jenny asked, distracted from her animosity by the thought of fashion in peril.

"I haven't checked. I think they're still in the washer."

Thinking to make the most of this momentary accord, Jenny headed for the laundry.

"Yep, you got to them in time. I put them in the dryer."

"Thanks," Blair said, then fell silent. They both started talking at the same time.

"Look Jenny..."

"Blair, I..."

Blair giggled as she saw Jenny's contrite, fearful face. 

"Blair, I just came back to spend Christmas with Dan seeing as he's all alone. Or at least I thought he would be. Plus my mum's stuck-up, bohemian friends were coming around. But after the holiday I'm heading back to Hudson."

Blair sighed. "How about an amnesty between us? After all, today's supposed to be a day of peace. And you did try to do the right thing the last time you were here. Well, eventually at least." Blair paused and rolled her eyes. "If you wanted to come home for good I guess I could put you on probation or something," she said grudgingly.

Jenny smiled in relief. "Um, maybe just see how Christmas works out for starters."

They were both still laughing as Nate and Dan walked back in.

"Wow. Talk about Christmas surprises," Dan said as Jenny ran forward to give him a hug. He turned wary eyes to Blair but she smiled at him encouragingly, letting him know everything was all right.

"Well, our uninvited guests are going to come in handy," Blair announced a little while later. "The second coat still has to go up."

Although Nate and Jenny grumbled about slave labour, they all ended up having a great time painting a wall apiece before tucking into Christmas dinner.

"To friendship," Dan proposed in toast, staring into Blair's warm brown eyes.

"And whatever else it leads to," Jenny said under her breath to Nate, nodding towards the smiling brunettes, who already looked like a couple. The two blondes shared a meaningful glance.

"How long would you say it will take?" Nate asked in a whisper.

"Um, well Dan's kind of a slow mover, whereas Blair just takes what she wants. But she's also the type of girl who expects the guy to make the first move. So it's hard to say. I'm betting a month."

Nate grinned. "Well, I happened to have more faith in your brother. The way he keeps devouring her with his eyes, I bet he won't be able to hold out another fortnight. The poor guy must be stuffed, but he has such a hungry look on his face, Blair keeps forcing food on him."

They both snorted, because it was funny but true.

It was one of the best Christmases all four of them had ever had. 


	4. Dan teaches Blair to drive

The day after Christmas, Dan's office was newly painted and the pieces Blair had ordered to finish it off were set to be delivered over the next couple of days. The place was looking great, and Dan knew the room was going to become his favourite one, thanks to Blair.

Now it was his turn. He called Blair to ask her when she would be ready to receive her Christmas gift from him, in the form of her first ever driving lesson.

"How about when they give Jessica Simpson an Oscar? That week is looking pretty free," Blair had replied sarcastically. Finally, though she agreed to meet him the following afternoon.

"But not in that tin-can excuse for a car," Blair commanded.

"It's all I've got available," Dan reasoned.

"Look, just come to the penthouse. I'll organise the transport situation."

Dan was dubious when he arrived at the Waldorfs the next day.

"You know we actually need a car for me to teach you to drive, right?" He asks sceptically. "I'm not teaching you on one of those driving simulation video games or whatever."

Blair rolled her eyes. She was doing that so much lately she was in danger of a repetitive stress injury.

She smiled widely at Dan. "No, the toy I bought for myself is a lot more fun than some stupid video game," she purred. "Come see."

They made their way down to the garage filled with Bentleys and Mercedes. Dan's jaw dropped when he saw the car Blair had stopped in front of.

"That's a BMW 330 ci convertible," Dan said in awe.

"You know your cars, Humphrey. I'm impressed," Blair purred.

"Not really. But geez, Blair, this is a BMW. You really want to learn to drive in _this_? It will be like entering a triathlon when you've never even ridden a bike or gone to a gym."

Blair pouted. "I didn't think it would be a problem, seeing as how you drive like a grandmother going to church on Sunday and will probably expect me to do the same."

"It's very red."

Blair shrugged. "I like red."

Dan looked at her pouting lips, painted the same bright, attention-grabbing shade as the car.

"So do I," he grinned.

When he climbed into the car though he found himself digging his fingers into the leather seat as Blair gingerly eased the car out of the parking spot under his direction.

After practising parking and some basics in the garage for a bit, Dan offered to drive the car somewhere secluded where Blair could get some experience without the pressures of Manhattan traffic.

That was how they found themselves driving around Alpine, New Jersey. Dan taught Blair all the basic manoeuvres – a three-point turn, a parallel park, reversing in a straight line – and she proved a surprisingly adept student. Although she insisted performing said manoeuvres at a speed Dan found alarming.

After a while they decided to just cruise around, and let Blair get the feel of the car while checking out all the multi-million dollar mansions. They made a game of it, picking out which one on each block that they would buy for themselves.

Dan was full of shared glee, until he realised that for Blair it wasn't really a game. One day she probably would be buying one of these ridiculous, ostentatious suburban palaces. She would have the money to do so, and would doubtlessly marry someone equally affluent. One of these places would be chump change to someone like Chuck.

While Dan would never be able to afford one, even if he managed to become the great literary success he hoped to be. Unless he was to sell out and write the next tween sensation/movie franchise, of course.

The realisation rendered him quiet and moody, berating Blair unnecessarily harshly for her unfamiliarity with the road rules, and her seeming inability to use her indicator lights.

Blair became sulky in turn.

"Thank God we're out of that Stepford village and almost back in the real world," she said as they headed back to Manhattan.

"I forget how sheltered you've been, growing up thinking the Upper East Side is the 'real world'," Dan said sarcastically. "And seeing that Stepford village was like a window into your future."

"Um, excuse me? I would never move to _New Jersey_, no matter how many movie stars or hip hop artists decide to set up shop there! Blair Waldorf does not do suburbia, no matter how exclusive."

"What about when you get married and have kids? Or when you work all day at some high-powered career and want the chance to escape the rat race at nights or on the weekends?" Dan asked knowingly.

Blair shot him a scathing glance.

"I live and breathe city life. I could see myself ending up in Paris or Rome, perhaps London if I take up journalism or D.C. if I go into politics. I could even deal with Chicago or San Francisco on a temporary basis. But Manhattan will always be my home. Dear Lord, I'd even move to Brooklyn before I'd allow myself to be dragged off to the suburbs by some high-handed hubby who thinks the city is no place for kids." Blair ground her teeth in anger, and continued defensively. "Nate, Chuck, Serena and I all grew up in the city and we turned out just fine."

This last was said angrily without a trace of sarcasm. But then Blair paused to reflect for a second, and when she saw Dan looking at her pointedly and disbelievingly, she burst out laughing. He soon joined in, having perked up considerably during her little rant.

"Oh, yeah, the four of you could star in a PBS announcement on the benefits of city living during the most impressionable years of one's life," Dan snickered.

"Hey," Blair laughed. "We're not that bad. You weren't even around for Chuck's whole Emo period or Serena's shoplifting phase. Or the time Nate was going to get a tramp stamp. Believe me, we could have turned out a lot worse."

Dan, smiling at Blair as the wind whipped her hair where it poked out from underneath her pink knit cap, readily agreed.

Back at the penthouse, Blair made them both mugs of hot cocoa, and served Dan up a slice of raspberry cheesecake that she had made herself. Dan had trouble getting over what a good cook Blair was. It was something about her that was so normal, so grounded.

But then that was probably Dorota's influence, rather than her mother's, Dan reminded himself.

Yet compared to the rest of her Upper East Side brethren, Blair was surprisingly free from neuroses.

Oh, she definitely had her issues and hang-ups. But Dan was beginning to appreciate that Blair also had a reserve of inner-strength, an innate self-reliance, that Serena, who he used to believe was the only one to escape the curse of a UES upbringing relatively unscathed, had never displayed.

And when she smiled at him, genuinely smiled, like she was doing right now, it did something to his insides. Something about the way her whole face seemed to glow made him feel, made him feel...

Oh God.

He was such a masochist, he thought, as Dan realised that he had fallen, and fallen hard, for Blair Waldorf.

Blair Waldorf who had tortured him through the last two years of high school, after ignoring him through the first two. Blair Waldorf who never missed a chance to insult his appearance, his background, his home, his family, his intellectual pretensions. Blair Waldorf who had only very recently and rather grudgingly accepted his friendship simply because there was no one left in the city whose shoulder she could cry on while watching _It's A Wonderful Life _for the 152nd time.

"Are you paying attention to me Humphrey?" Blair asked sharply. "Where's your head at?"

Dan quickly apologised and tried to appear interested in Blair's memory of the one road trip her family had been on, when her father had forced her and her mother on a drive through Maine and Vermont to appreciate the beautiful scenery in an 'authentic' way. The vacation had not been a success.

Meanwhile, all Dan could think about was that if he had actually told where his head was 'at', she would no doubt have teased him mercilessly, or angrily ordered him out of the apartment. Or worse, she might have been pitying and kind, before making it clear that his feelings were entirely one-sided.

"But after today I've decided I actually like driving. The freedom, the feeling of power and control," Blair continued. "I'll need you to take me out every day to practise until I get my license."

Dan brightened at this information. Surely another sign of his sick mind, he concluded, that he should welcome the prospect of spending more time with the girl he now knew he desperately wanted but who barely tolerated him.

But then again – Blair had been warming to him lately. Maybe if he was to make the most of this opportunity, win her friendship more surely, he would eventually have a chance to win her heart? Stranger things had surely happened. He couldn't recall them at this moment, but that didn't mean they hadn't.

The next few days sped by as they now fit Blair's driving lessons into their schedule of movie-going and gallery-viewing and ice-skating. And they continued to visit Amicis, where they were always greeted like long-lost family members.

"I'm getting fat from eating all this Italian food," Blair complained.

"You look perfect and you know it," Dan countered. "There are about five guys in this place who look like they want to punch me just for daring to sit next to you."

And Blair didn't even feel guilty when he ordered a tiramisu for them to share.

This amiable frivolity was shattered, naturally enough, through a gossip girl blast.

For several days GG had been reporting on their excursions in very suggestive terms, although nothing absolutely incriminating had been reported. (Because, sadly for Dan, nothing incriminating had happened.)

Then she published pictures of Chuck getting hot and heavy with a stunning beauty named Raina. GG claimed they had been spotted together several times, and that the woman, rather than just being one of the long line to grace the playboy's bed, was Chuck's new girlfriend. Who he had introduced to his uncle for the family seal of approval on his recent visit to Sydney.

Dan was expecting some sort of fall-out when he arrived at the Waldorf penthouse for their daily driving lesson.

He wasn't expecting to find her in the bathroom, heaving her guts up.

"Blair, what's the mat..?" He started to ask, but paused as her frightened eyes flew to his face.

Then he understood. And she saw that he understood.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

He dropped to the ground and folded her in his arms, rubbing soothing circles on her back as she quietly sobbed.

"Nobody's supposed to see me like this," she cried. "I'm disgusting."

He kissed her head and held her tighter, so tightly that he managed to hold together all the pieces of her that had felt like they were about to fall apart. And he told her again that she was perfect.

When she finally quietened, he asked her about it.

She told him everything. How it had started freshman year when she felt like everyone had these expectations of her – Nate, her parents, the other girls at school. How her mother's constant belittling of her looks had further eroded her self-esteem. And how she had eventually sought help.

"I've been doing so much better. It's been over three years now since I've done anything like this. I really thought I was over it. Then I saw the Gossip Girl blast and I just couldn't stop it."

Dan's loathing and resentment towards Chuck Bass grew. But he forced himself to say the words he thought would comfort Blair most.

"That girl probably means nothing to him. None of them ever do. He has infatuations sometimes, but you're the only one he's ever loved. You know he'll be back here soon enough, begging forgiveness."

Blair shook her head sadly. "It's really over this time. I think that's why I did it really. Because I know this is really the end of us. Of this thing that has been consuming my life for the last three years."

Dan looked at Blair, clearly dubious and confused.

"You don't believe me?" Blair asked angrily.

Dan responded gently. "I think the one constant in your relationship with Chuck is that no matter what either of you do, neither of you can seem to stay away from each other. I know it might feel like the end now, but I've seen him win you back too many times to really hope this time will be any different. He is probably just using that girl to make you jealous..."

"This isn't about her. Or at least it's not just about her."

Dan's brow furrowed further. "Then what is it about?"

"The blast said he had gone to see his Uncle Jack. That means he's probably recruiting him to help in his take-down of Lily. Bringing him back to New York."

"So what? I mean Jack seems to come off as even slimier than Chuck, and what he tried to do to Lily at the opera was despicable, but I figured that was just the Bass DNA. Why does it matter if they bond again now they have a shared enemy?"

Blair was silent for a minute, then sighed, seeming to reach a momentous decision. She slipped out of Dan's arms and turned so she was seated leaning against the tub, facing him.

"You can never tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

Dan stared into Blair's eyes, now remarkably free from tears. The look on her face was fierce, determined. Her posture was taut, as if tensed for impact.

"I promise," he answered solemnly.

"You know that Chuck lost his hotel to Jack last year?"

Dan nodded.

"Well, he used me to get it back."

Blair looked at Dan, waiting to see the revulsion settle into his eyes. But Dan just stared at her uncomprehendingly.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before continuing.

"Jack told Chuck he would sell the hotel back to him in exchange for one night with me. Chuck knew he could never just ask me to do something like that. So he manipulated me. He made sure Jack made me aware of the offer. Then he made me feel really bad that he had lost everything."

She sighed. "No, more than that, he made me afraid of what might happen to him, to us, if he couldn't get it back. Because he knew I knew how low he could sink, how dark his thoughts could get, if he started to feel like the failure his father had always thought he was once more. So I went to Jack. Made him sign a contract: one night with me in exchange for him giving Chuck back the hotel and never telling him why."

Blair shook her head, let out a mirthless little laugh. "Then he just sent me away. Told me Chuck had known the whole time. All he wanted to do was break us up."

Dan stared at Blair in shock. He had known Chuck was a monster. But he thought that if Chuck had one redeeming quality, it was the obsessive love he had shown for the fragile, broken girl beside him. But he had just taken her and broken her further.

Chuck Bass was truly a monster.

Dan's fingers automatically curled into fists.

And pretty soon, Chuck Bass was going to be made to pay.

"That was why you broke up with him," Dan said with dawning realisation. "That was what you meant at Dorota's wedding when you talked about what you had both become."

Blair nodded, the sick feeling rising in her again once more.

"Yes. I felt so worthless, so unfit to be around nice, normal people, that I thought that at least if I got back together with him, I'd have some company of the kind I deserved. Then I saw Dorota and Vanya so in love, and I knew I couldn't keep pretending...so I ended it. Later though I thought we could move past it. Chuck had made a mistake. We both had."

Blair bit her lip. "I convinced myself that it was my fault. That it had happened because I didn't value myself enough. During our relationship I had let myself get so lost in Chuck, in his needs, that I had ceased to matter. So after the Saints and Sinners Ball I told him I needed to work on myself, to come into my own, solidify my identity as Blair Waldorf rather than just Chuck Bass's girlfriend, before I could be with him. He agreed. And I really thought that in the future..."

Blair closed her eyes, shook her head again. "But he's bringing Jack back to New York. Bringing him back into our lives, the man who destroyed us, destroyed me, made me feel like I had now worth. The man he _sold _me to. And I realised that Chuck just doesn't get it. Maybe he does love me, in his way. But he will always love his own ego more."

Blair continued harshly, and Dan knew her anger was directed as much against herself, her own weakness, as Chuck. "He sold me to Jack because losing the hotel would have made him feel like a failure. He was afraid to tell me he loved me first because he wasn't about to let himself open to rejection." She snorted. "He abandoned me in Tuscany because he was worried having a girlfriend would affect his machismo. Sent out a gossip girl blast because I had picked Nate over him."

She continued more quietly. "He slept with your sister to assuage his male pride after I failed to show up at the Empire State Building. Whenever it comes down to a choice between me and his ego, his ego wins, every time. Even now, he doesn't really need Jack to take Lily down. But he will do anything and everything possible to hold on to Bass Industries, to preserve his image of ruthlessness and power. It's potential to hurt me doesn't matter. Doesn't even occur to him. That's why this time, for me, it really is over."

Blair's eyes had remained downcast during this monologue outpouring. She hardly dared to raise her eyes to Dan's face.

When she finally did, she saw the anger there, and, mistaking it for the disgust she believed she deserved, immediately began to turn away from him, easing herself up.

"You can go home now. I don't really feel like driving today. Maybe we should give the lessons a break for a while, you probably have other things you need to be doing..." Blair's voice began to break.

Dan, realising she had misinterpreted his silence for condemnation, jumped up and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm not going anywhere," he soothed.

"How can you want to stay, when I'm so wicked?" Blair sobbed brokenly. "All the bad, twisted things you thought me, and more."

Dan pulled Blair back from him so she could look into his eyes. "Blair, listen to me. It wasn't you that was wicked. It was Chuck and Jack and this whole warped universe we live in. You need to believe me. The only thing you did wrong was loving someone too much who didn't deserve it. But to feel that powerfully about someone..."

Dan drew in a ragged breath, "To be able to feel that powerfully about someone, to be willing – really willing – to do anything for them, that's a gift. A strength. It was just wasted on the wrong person." And he pulled Blair back into his arms as she began to sob again.

He led her to the bed, laying them both down, her head on his chest, until her crying finally ceased.

Dan stroked her back, lost in his own thoughts. He knew Blair had expected him to be revolted by her revelations. And he had been. But all that revulsion had been directed at the selfish, greedy lech who he had always distrusted.

The effect the revelations had had on the way he felt about Blair were entirely different.

Before he knew he had only been infatuated with the brunette beauty. Now he knew he was deeply and irrevocably in love with her. The knowledge seemed to settle on his soul like armour, and as it did displaced all the other, weaker feelings he had had in the past – for Serena, his dream girl who he had briefly imagined to be his soul mate, for Vanessa, his best friend, lover and comrade against the foibles of the UES elite, even for his family, his father and his sister.

He knew that he loved her intensely, as intensely as she had once loved Chuck. He just didn't know if she would ever feel the same way about him.

"If you don't feel like driving today, how about a movie?" Dan asked, eager to think of something that would distract Blair, cheer her up.

"Sitting in the dark sounds good, but I can't go outside looking all puffy from crying," Blair responded self-mockingly. "Can we just watch a DVD?"

Dan tried to control his sudden joy at the prospect of getting to spend the afternoon curled up in bed with the girl he loved, even if it was just watching movies. The experience was a strange mix of torture and bliss, heaven and hell.

He left only after Blair had fallen asleep. He had wanted to stay, but was afraid that would seem creepy and stalkerish, especially if Blair woke up just to find him lying there staring at her. His blood was pumping too furiously with the events of the day for him ever to be able to relax enough to fall asleep there beside her.

He arrived home to find Serena waiting for him. All bright smiles and sunshine and golden glow; a complete contrast from the quiet, cool beauty and sublime misery of the girl he had just left. But he knew that, in reality, Blair was the stronger one, the one able to move past all the dramas of her life all on her own. Blair didn't need him, not really. Funnily enough, that seemed to be part of the reason he wanted to be there for her.

He answered Serena's smiling greeting with one of his own, but he did not feel even a touch of the love and longing that smile had once unfailingly inspired. All that was left was a warm affection. That was what had him worried about the coming encounter.

"Dan! I know it's late, but I couldn't wait to see you. I had to stop by as soon as I got back to the city. I couldn't believe it when you weren't in," Serena trilled merrily, only a slight annoyance, slight disbelief that something in the life of Serena Van der Woodsen should fail to go perfectly, colouring her tone. "Where have you been?"

"I've been at Blair's," he replied neutrally as he unlocked the front door and let them both in.

Serena looked confused, but not suspicious. "Yeah, I saw from Gossip Girl you two have been hanging out. That's really nice of you Dan. Looking out for Blair while I've been away."

Dan tried to ignore his exasperation that Serena would immediately assume he would only spend time with Blair for Serena's sake, rather than her own.

He shrugged, "We actually have more in common than I thought."

Serena grinned, "Blair Waldorf and Dan Humphrey actually becoming friends. I never thought I'd see the day."

"Stranger things have happened," Dan smiled. Like Dan Humphrey falling madly in love with Blair Waldorf in the space of just a few weeks.

Serena nodded distractedly. "Actually, it's really good. It makes things even more perfect."

She smiled at Dan. "It's done, Dan. I saw the judge and got Ben out of prison. He's back in the city. There's still the fall-out with my mother to come but..." She paused, and there was something in it that was artificial, as if Serena had been rehearsing the lines of a script, and was now knowingly going for effect, trying to build the dramatic tension.

"But now we can be together. There's nothing standing between us. No more dramas in my life. No more distractions." Dan wondered how Nate would feel to hear himself labelled a distraction. "And you can't say that we're from two different worlds anymore, Dan. Because you've found a place in the UES too now." Serena laughed. "You even like Blair. Everything is perfect."

She looked at him expectantly, hopefully, awaiting his response.

He sighed, searching for the words, and finding none.

Well, she had sounded like she had organised a script. Maybe he could go with something he had prepared earlier as well.

"Serena, I want you to read something I've been working on these past weeks." He dug out the pages from the kitchen table.

Serena grinned. "I pour out my heart and all you can think about is the value of my literary criticism? Don't you think it can wait until..."

"No," Dan cut her off. "I really think you should read this. Then we'll talk."

Serena's smile faltered at his serious expression. She took the pages from him. She assumed that whatever he had written would be about her. That it would spell out the reasons for his concerned expression. She wasn't really worried. Whatever his anxieties, she was confident she could overcome them, reassure him.

But as she read, her expression became shocked then grim.

Finally, she stopped reading and turned to Dan.

"This is about Blair," she said, more statement than question.

"Yes," Dan acknowledged.

Serena looked down at the pages in seeming bewilderment.

"You're in love with her," she said, sounding more astonished than hurt.

"Yes," Dan admitted heavily. "She doesn't know," he added quickly, as he anticipated her next question when her eyes flashed to his face.

Serena was silent for a moment. "Do you think she returns your feelings?" she finally asked in a small voice.

"I don't know. Sometimes I think she's just putting up with me until semester starts and all her real friends are back," he responded with a wry smile. He sobered and continued more gently, "Other times, I think she might like me too. I hope that, in time, she might feel something more. That she will see that I'd be good for her, good to her."

Serena closed her eyes and bit her lip.

"I'm sorry," Dan told her genuinely.

Serena shook her head. "It's my own fault. I'm always making you wait and then I'm surprised when you're not still here for me when I come back. If I had made my decision quicker, told you how I felt before I left for Paris, or if I had come to you straight after Colin and I broke up, this could have all been different." She looked at him sadly.

Dan made no reply. He couldn't tell her that he believed that, in the end, it would have made no difference. In fact it might just have made everything more complicated. Because he knew that, somewhere down the track, he would have realised how amazing Blair was. And it wouldn't have mattered if he had been with Serena at that point. He would still have had to hurt her. Because he wasn't Nate. He couldn't pretend to be in love with one girl, when he was really in love with her best friend.

Serena sighed. "I know blame you for moving on. You deserve to be happy." She grimaced. "And so does Blair. But Dan," Serena looked at him beseechingly.

"Are you really sure about this? I mean I know Chuck and Blair are broken up at the moment, but the way those two are with each other...You say you're willing to wait until she's willing to let you in, but I don't know if that will ever happen. Chuck's taken up so much room in her heart, I don't know if there will ever be room for anyone else. And I don't want to see you get hurt again." She squeezed his hand carefully, before dropping it back into her lap.

"If anyone's capable of feeling a great love for a second time, it's Blair," Dan said with such calm certainty Serena blinked in surprise.

Dan turned to Serena and smiled. "What you and I had was the wonder and joy of first love. You will always be special to me because of that. But I think you're great love is still out there, waiting to find you." This time he reached for her hand and squeezed it. "When he does, he'll be the happiest and luckiest guy in the world."

Serena smiled at him waterily, and laughed. "Sure. He'll get attacked by Hurricane Serena and won't know what hit him."

She smiled a little more steadily at him. "Seriously, though, if that's the way you really feel," she indicated the discarded manuscript, easily the most beautiful and tenderest thing she had ever read. "Then I'm happy for you. And Blair. I won't do anything to stand in your way. But, if I could offer some advice?" Serena questioned uncertainly, standing and preparing to make her departure.

Dan blinked in surprise, pleased at the relative painlessness of the interview. He nodded. "Of course."

Serena leaned in and kissed his cheek in a gesture of farewell. She held a hand to his face. "Don't make her wait too long to admit how you feel. It never ends well."

Then she quickly turned and fled back to her safety cocooned world - where emotions were felt it was true - but never too deeply.

_Merry Christmas! My Christmas wish is to receive as many lovely reviews as possible, with as much detail as possible about the bits you like. (So sue me - I have a fragile ego and love positive reinforcement!) You can make my Christmas wish come true by reading and reviewing!_


	5. Blair and Dan dance

The Gossip Girl blast about Serena's late night visit to the loft was released early the following morning. The picture accompanying the leak showed a happy and bubbly Serena standing beside Dan as he unlocked the door to let them in. The blast reported that Serena had been seen entering the former Lonely Boy's place after midnight but it was not known when she had left.

Predictably, after leaving the loft in tears that she had only managed to conceal from Dan by a precipitous departure, Serena had gone straight to the other boy she could always count on to cheer her up when she was feeling down. Despite the late (or early) hour, Nate welcomed her into the suite he shared with Chuck at the Empire without hesitation.

"I just came from seeing Dan," Serena managed, before bursting into tears again.

Although somewhat irked that Serena just expected him to go right ahead and comfort her after she had been rejected by the guy she had in turn rejected him in favour of, Nate pushed his feelings of disgruntlement aside and patted her back soothingly.

"How did this happen, Nate? When I left Blair and Dan were perfectly happy avoiding each other as much as possible. Now he's writing about her – beautiful, romantic prose. More lovely than anything he ever wrote about me," Serena glanced sadly up at Nate before continuing to sob brokenly.

"I could see it in his eyes, when he was telling me it was over between us, that it wasn't even a difficult decision for him. When he said it was Blair he wanted, that he was willing to wait for her to feel the same way about him, there was this certainty about him, this finality, and I knew, I just knew, he'd never felt that way about me."

"I'm sorry," Nate comforted, continuing to pat her back. "Despite everything that's happened, I'd never want you to be hurt like this."

"Nate, I have to know. You have to tell me. Does she feel the same way about him? I know you've seen them both together since you've come back. And you've known Blair long enough to know. Is it the same for her too?"

Serena asked this with a sense of urgency. Perhaps, after all, this was merely a temporary glitch in her otherwise charmed destiny. Maybe Blair didn't feel anything for Dan, and in a little while he would realise how silly he'd been, and then of course he would want Serena back.

Nate hesitated before replying, wondering if there was a way to tell the truth but spare her feelings. Struggling for the words to explain the strange change he had seen in their two friends. Dan and Blair seemed such an unlikely couple, until you saw them together, then they suddenly made perfect sense.

He sighed. "Yes, I think she feels the same way. But I don't know if she's aware of it the way Dan is. But I've never seen her so comfortable, so carefree, with anyone. When he's around...she lights up."

Serena bit her lip and stared down at her lap.

"You're not going to," Nate hesitated, trying to think of a tactful way to voice his concerns, "I don't know, do something to try to win him back, are you?"

Serena was silent for a moment. "I don't know that I could."

The indecisive way that she said it worried Nate. He felt strangely protective of Dan and Blair's blossoming romance, perhaps because he had been the first one to see it coming.

"Seriously, Serena, don't mess with them. Blair's your best friend. Dan makes her happy. If you do anything to come between them it will blow up in your face. He'll be furious, she'll resent you, and you will lose two of the most important people in your life."

"I know Nate, I know!" Serena glared angrily at him. "He chose Blair. And whether I like it or not, I'll just have to accept that. I just don't know how, or when, I'll ever be able to be around either of them again."

The anger seeped from her voice and she continued brokenly. "He wanted her more than he wanted me. And it hurts so much to know it," she sobbed.

Nate blew out a frustrated sigh, but put his arm around her. "This only hurts so much, because you've always been the one to do the leaving. You've never really been left before."

Nate continued, reflecting ruefully, "There's a strange irony about it really. All our lives, people have chosen you over Blair. Eleanor, Yale, me, the male population in general. Then when you finally make a choice, the guy you choose is the one who turns around and chooses Blair. Before he's even sure she'll choose him back."

Serena hiccupped as her sobbing slowed. "Maybe it's karma. Maybe I deserve this, for waiting so long to choose Dan," Serena paused, her eyes suddenly widening.

"Nate, I'm so sorry. I'm moping over someone doing the exact same thing to me that I did to you. I can't believe you didn't slam the door in my face. I shouldn't have come here, it was completely insensitive," Serena struggled to rise.

Nate pulled her back down and laughed. "Yes it was. But I'm glad you're here."

They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, and Serena thought maybe their story together wasn't quite finished yet.

When Blair read the Gossip Girl blast about Serena's return and late night visit to Dan she felt a familiar queasiness rise in her stomach, but she resisted the urge.

The thought of Dan blissfully holding Serena in his arms, joyful now that his golden girl had returned to him, and the odd waiting period he had spent in the city was over, made Blair sick. Maybe because he had spent that time with Blair, and for her it hadn't really felt like a waiting period. More like the beginning of something.

The thought that Dan would be relieved now it was over, and that he would doubtlessly begin spending all his time with Serena and blithely discontinue all the little rituals and routines they had built up over the past weeks, made Blair unreasonably angry.

She tried to convince herself that the jealousy she felt over Serena's return was prompted just by the loss of a new-found friend. It had been convenient having Dan around, and it would be decidedly inconvenient to have him go back to being completely preoccupied by his on-again, off-again relationship with her best friend.

There could be no other explanation for the sense of loss she was feeling. Dan Humphrey was from Brooklyn. He was socially awkward, and he wrote poetry, and he owned a Cabbage Patch kid for crying out loud! So clearly Blair could never really feel anything for him apart from low-level toleration.

Except that somehow, over the past few weeks, all those factors had somehow stopped being so distasteful to Blair. In fact, they had become just a little bit intriguing. Endearing. Attractive even.

And he had proved surprisingly sweet and funny. And touchingly caring, when he had found out about the whole situation with Chuck.

Blair tried to battle against the realisation, but it was ultimately a lost cause. She was attracted to Dan Humphrey. More than that, she was in serious danger of falling for him.

And the thought of him and Serena together was just wrong.

She had always thought their relationship was wrong, of course. But this was different. Before she had always felt that the relationship was off-kilter because Serena ought to be with a different type of guy. Now she knew Dan needed to be with a different type of girl.

Blair glared down at her phone and the photo accompanying the Gossip Girl blast.

She couldn't see Dan's face in it, but she could imagine the expression of pure happiness.

Blair let out an angry humpf, and with sudden decisiveness grabbed her handbag to head out for the day.

She had spent too long watching Nate moon over Serena, always feeling second-best, to wish to repeat the experience. Her relationship with Chuck had also left her feeling that way, as if she was of secondary importance. Not to Serena this time, but to Chuck himself.

Well, no more. She wasn't going to sit at home, waiting to see if Dan was able to drag himself away from Serena's arms long enough to keep their appointment for today's driving lesson.

She was going to prove to him, to everyone else and most of all to herself, that she didn't need any of them. She could have a good time all on her own. And if Dan Humphrey preferred blondes to brunettes well, he wasn't the only gentleman in Manhattan.

Blair spent the next several hours shopping. She ignored several calls from Dan, and one from Serena. That night was the Met's New Year's Eve ball, and she wanted to get something really special to wear.

Meanwhile, Dan was freaking out because Blair hadn't been home when he went to pick her up for their driving lesson. On the ride over he had been screwing up his courage to talk to her. He thought maybe he could test the waters about how she would react to an admission of his feelings by telling her that he had ended things with Serena.

Then he had arrived to find her gone and not answering her cell.

He had started to panic. Blair had seemed better by the time he left yesterday, but what if the whole Chuck mess had been playing on her mind? His anxiety was increased when he found out from the doorman that Blair had left in her BMW, which she wasn't meant to be driving without supervision.

Blair always liked to drive fast. Dan prayed that the previous day's GG blast about Chuck hadn't left her in a reckless mood.

At that moment, Chuck Bass was sitting in a limo, with his new girlfriend ensconced at his side. He had been exceedingly attracted to her from their first meeting in Auckland, where she had initially rejected his advances. This refusal had naturally only increased his determination to have her. During his pursuit of Raina he had found her to be not only beautiful but frighteningly intelligent and more than his match conversationally.

But if he was honest, one of the main reasons he had pursued the relationship, and insisted on bringing her back to Manhattan, was to needle Blair. It was only fair, given the way she was obviously using Dan Humphrey to make him jealous.

He had also brought his uncle back with him, though Jack was riding in a separate car. Jack was essential if he was to succeed in his plan against Lily, but Chuck didn't want to spend any more time in his company than was absolutely necessary.

As Chuck was staring out the window reflecting on the details on his plot to take down his previously beloved stepmother, a red convertible shot out from behind the town car and sped past to overtake it.

Just for a second he glimpsed a blur of dark brunette tendrils, creamy complexion and red lips the same shade of the car, then the convertible shot past.

He shook his head dazedly. "It couldn't be," he muttered to himself. Blair couldn't drive.

Yet he couldn't shake the distinct impression he had had that Blair had been the girl at the wheel, effortlessly chic as she masterfully moved the machine through New York traffic. He found it difficult to concentrate on Raina's mocking banter for the rest of the drive home.

As soon as he arrived at the Empire and had despatched Raina to refresh herself after the 27 hour flight, Chuck sought out Nate.

"Satisfy my curiosity, Archibald. This may sound strange but...our ex-girlfriend hasn't recently learnt how to drive, has she?" Chuck asked Nate after exchanging the usual greetings.

"Yeah, Dan's been teaching her," Nate responded affably, while munching an apple. "He says she's surprisingly good at it. Oh man, you should see her car though. It's a..."

"BMW 330ci?"

"Yeah. I'm dying to test it out but Blair won't let me. Says she's not sure I could handle the intensity," Nate said sulkily.

"Archibald, I don't give a damn that Blair won't let you play with her new toy. I want to know why Dan Humphrey is teaching her to drive! I explicitly told you to keep him away from her," Chuck expostulated.

"Well, yeah," Nate agreed sheepishly. "But you kind of hung up before hearing whether I agreed. Which I didn't. Dan and Blair are my friends too, you know."

Chuck's brow contracted angrily. "And do you really think it's in Blair's long-term interest for this...interlude...with Humphrey to continue? What about when Serena comes home?"

"She got home last night. Dan ended things with her. Not that I'm a hundred percent sure they had ever really started up again."

Chuck became dangerously still. "Hum-drum Humphrey broke it off with his dream girl for good?"

"Yeah," Nate replied, wary of Chuck's evidently suppressed rage.

"Why would he do that?" Chuck queried softly.

Nate gave no response besides a pained grimace.

"For Blair?"

"According to Serena, yes." Nate hesitated before continuing. "You let her go, man. You have to accept the consequences of that. Like you said, if it's meant to be, you'll find your way back to each other. Don't make her hate you."

Chuck looked at Nate speculatively. "Are she and Dan officially together?"

Nate sighed. "I don't think it's got that far. Yet. But for once listen to me Chuck. Don't mess up your own chance of happiness with her later, by messing up her chances of happiness right now."

Chuck just smirked at his best friend. "But what if I showed her that she could have happiness right now, with me? Before Humphrey manages to weasel his way into her affections on a semi-permanent basis?"

Nate shook his head remonstratively. "Chuck..."

"Excuse me, Nathaniel, I have a New Year's ball to dress for," Chuck cut in emphatically as he exited the room.

Nate despairingly shook his head. Yet another UES event headed for disaster.

Dan's anxieties were momentarily relieved when a GG blast reported that Blair had been spotted shopping for ball gowns on Fifth Avenue.

Yet he couldn't help but be concerned that she was still obviously ignoring his calls.

He had to see her. Perhaps she was feeling embarrassed by yesterday's revelations and was afraid to face him.

He wanted to stay at her penthouse and wait for her to get home, but he had to go to the Van der Woodsen apartment to welcome his father back to New York. Rufus had returned early. Without Lily.

Dan's mind quickly calculated how soon he would be able to see Blair. She had been shopping for ball gowns, which meant she must be planning to go to the New Year's ball at the Met that night. He could go to the apartment, greet his Dad and at the same time pick up the invitation to the ball that had undoubtedly been extended to the whole Van der Woodsen-Humphrey clan.

As Dan greeted his father and started making all the standard enquiries about his trip, Rufus couldn't help but notice the way his eyes darted around the apartment, as if searching for something.

It was also obvious that Dan was intent on speaking at warp speed.

"Have you had a lot of caffeine today, son?" Rufus asked with concern.

"What? No. But I'm sorry I don't really have time for a cup of coffee," Dan replied abstractedly.

"I wasn't offering," Rufus replied drily. "It's just that you seem kind of amped up. And are you looking for something?" Rufus added this as Dan began to rifle through some catalogues on the breakfast nook with attempted nonchalance.

Dan grinned sheepishly. "Uh, yeah kind of. You see there's this New Year ball tonight and I assumed Lily received an invitation and I thought I could go. You know, as the family representative."

Rufus stared at him sceptically. "Uh huh. Well sure. I mean I know how much you love these society events. The mail's in there." He pointed to a kitchen drawer, which Dan pulled out so fast it nearly came off its hinges.

"So, from your manic behaviour I'm guessing there's a girl involved in this sudden urge to don a tuxedo and muck it up with the upper classes tonight. Is Serena back in town?"

Dan located the invite in the pile of mail and held it up to his father in triumph. "Found it. And, yes, Serena's back in town but that isn't what this is about. Nothing's going to happen between Serena and I. That's all water under the bridge."

Rufus looked at his son speculatively. "So this is about someone new?"

"In a way," Dan said hesitantly.

"Anyone I know?"

"We're uh, we're not going out or anything. But we were the only ones left in the city over the break and we became friends. And now," Dan shrugged, tried to play it cool. "I just want to see her, and spend more time with her."

"Wait, are you talking about Blair Waldorf? Lily told me about the blasts on Gossip Girl concerning the two of you but I didn't believe it. After everything she's done to you and her sister over the years?" Rufus asked incredulously.

Dan immediately felt defensive for both Blair's sake and his own. "Blair's never really done anything to me. Except tease me mercilessly, which I've actually got to kind of like. And as for Jenny, their whole feud is kind of a two-way street and Jenny has done some despicable things to Blair too. But they reached an armistice over the holidays. A peace treaty is in the works."

"Yeah, but two years ago I mentioned the possibility of you and Blair getting together and you told me that was sick. What's changed?"

Dan looked into the distance for a moment before turning back to his father.

"I guess...both of us. I'm less judgemental and she's less uptight and when I'm with her I don't feel sick at all actually. In fact when I feel sick is when I'm away from her, which is why I have to get to this ball. I haven't been able to see her all day," Dan grabbed his coat and scarf. "I have to go."

Rufus followed him to the door. "Well, I guess it's not like you'll be inflicting her on us at countless family gatherings because she comes to all of those anyway."

He clapped Dan on the shoulder at the door. "Good luck, son," he said it sincerely, if somewhat dubiously.

Dan grinned at him as the elevator doors closed.

Blair had dressed for the night with care. The dress she had chosen was more provocative, more daring than she would normally wear. Of course, being Valentino it still exuded class and sophistication. The layered slightly ruffled skirt was short at the front, showing a decent amount of Blair's slender legs, before falling to a full ball gown length style at the back. The bodice was strips of satin tightly wrapped around Blair's petite frame, which still showed plenty of soft, creamy skin. And, naturally, it was red.

The dress, or maybe the confidence Blair exuded in it, was securing her a lot of male attention at the ball.

Blair felt like she finally knew what it must feel like to be her effortlessly enticing best friend as men fell over themselves to buy her drinks, chat her up, ask her to dance.

To be honest, she wasn't attracted to any of them in the least. They all seemed to be investment bankers, or equally tedious types, and under normal circumstances she would have dismissed them with a haughty look and barbed comment. But tonight she had something to prove.

So she laughed and flirted and appeared to be having the time of her life, even though inside, she was miserable.

It was almost ten o'clock when she found herself caught in conversation with a handsome young lawyer. He was ostensibly telling her about the office politics at his prestigious New York firm, but was in reality rather obviously staring at her cleavage. He was also using any excuse to touch her, and Blair was wondering whether she should ease herself away from his company politely but firmly, when an arm snaked around her waist from behind.

A familiar deep voice sounded in her ear, "I can't leave you alone for longer than a minute without you getting into trouble, can I, Waldorf?"

"You've been gone a lot longer than that, Bass. Over three weeks, in fact. Plenty of time for mischief making," Blair responded astringently, using two fingers to remove his arm from her waist in obvious distaste.

The lawyer had quickly disappeared having recognised his superfluity and the dangerous look in Chuck's eyes. Blair turned to face the man she would have recently claimed to love.

"What do you want, Chuck?"

Chuck's eyes narrowed at her tone of weary indifference. He nevertheless responded suavely, "I want what every other man in this room wants, Blair. To dance with you."

He held out his hand in invitation. Blair looked at it sadly and shook her head.

"And how would your new girlfriend feel that about that?" she queried tartly before striding for the door.

Chuck followed her out of the ballroom into the antechamber. He clutched at her shoulder, forcing her to listen to him. "I left Raina at the hotel. I had to talk to you."

"About what?" Blair shrugged off his touch, her eyes darting to the cloakroom. She wondered if there were any taxis outside.

Chuck saw the direction of her gaze and his hand clamped around her wrist in a vice-like grip. His voice became cold and threatening. "About what you think you're doing with Dan Humphrey, for a start."

It had taken ages for Dan to make his way to the ball. After leaving his father he had had to get back to Brooklyn to don his tux. The ride had taken forever, and then he hadn't been able to find the suit that Blair had once told made him look almost presentable. He'd finally left the loft and decided to bite the bullet and cough up the expense of a cab over riding the subway again, only to encounter the worst New Year's Eve traffic in Manhattan's history.

During the cab ride Dan had strategized.

He would use the ball to show Blair that he could be debonair, the type of guy she could spend some long-term time with. They would dance, and chat, and he would reassure her that yesterday hadn't affected their tentative friendship. He would also mention that Serena and he had talked and decided it was for the best that they continue to go their separate ways. Dan would mention it casually. He didn't want to spook Blair by coming on too strong, too fast. They would take things slow.

His growing sense of calm had been shattered by a Gossip Girl blast showing Blair surrounded by half a dozen lecherous tycoons all clearly intent on ripping the sexiest red dress Dan had ever seen from her beautiful body.

Dan impatiently told the cab driver (for the fourth time) that he needed to get to the Met as fast as possible.

When he finally got to Lincoln Center Dan had raced through the ballroom searching for Blair. In her flaming red dress, she should have been distinctive, if only from the number of men surrounding her with their tongues hanging out.

But he couldn't find her. Dan headed back out to the antechamber, away from the noise, thinking he could clear his head and perhaps call Blair on her cell.

But before he could do so he heard heated voices coming from a nearby alcove.

"Please, don't pretend you have feelings for the little suburbanite. You're attempt to use him to make me jealous is both obvious and pathetic."

"Who I do or do not have feelings for is no concern of yours. We broke up, Chuck. You just admitted you have a girlfriend now."

"Tell me to dump her and I will. I don't want to wait anymore, Blair. I want us to be together."

"Why? Nothing's changed. And you say you want us to be together, yet you've dragged back to town the man who tore us apart."

"That's just business, it's nothing to do with us."

"It's everything to do with us," Blair cried. "It's just another example of how, yet again, you've chosen to do what is best for you, without thinking about how it might affect me. Did you even stop to think how humiliated I would feel to have to face that man again? How hurt I'd be by the fact that _you _had been the one to subject me to that, yet again?"

The sound of distress in Blair's voice wrenched Dan's heart.

Pained by the truthfulness of Blair's assertions, Chuck lashed out defensively. "For the last time, Blair, you chose to go up to that room yourself. I didn't force you..."

Chuck was cut off by a large fist connecting to his nose with a sickening crunch.

"Don't you dare, Bass," Dan warned him angrily, moving to stand in front of Blair protectively. "After what you did, don't you even talk to her!"

"What a shock, Dan Humphrey, rushing to the rescue of yet another not-so-virtuous lady," Chuck spat contemptuously as he struggled to rise.

He really shouldn't have been surprised when the fist connected to his face a second time.

Dan had Chuck by the lapels and was preparing to strike him a third time when he felt a restraining hand on his arm.

"Enough," Blair said as she pulled him away from Chuck.

"Bass, clean yourself up and get out of here. You and I have nothing left to say to each other," she added as she saw he was about to protest. "I don't want to see you again for a while."

She led Dan away, to an empty room with a bar and smaller dance floor.

Blair looked at Dan uncertainly. He squeezed her fingers reassuringly and she started and dropped his hand.

"I'll get you some ice. It will help with any bruising or swelling on your hand," she said nervously, heading over to the bar.

"Believe me, any bruising or swelling will be worth it," Dan said, closing the distance between them.

Blair glanced at him apprehensively as she applied the ice tenderly to his bones. "Why did you do that?"

Dan shrugged casually. "It's what friends do."

Blair straightened and nodded. "Right. I better go find Serena and tell her what happened. Otherwise she'll be wondering where you are?"

"Serena's here?" Dan's brow furrowed quizzically.

Blair looked at him blankly. "I assumed you came as her date." She swallowed convulsively and then added sourly, "I saw all about your touching reunion on Gossip Girl."

Suddenly Dan was done playing it cool. He had absolutely no desire to take this slow.

"In case the smackdown was too subtle a demonstration for you, I suppose I should make it clear that I came here for you, Waldorf. It's lucky you're so beautiful, because at times you show a surprising lack of brain power for someone so witty."

Blair gaped at him. "Dan Humphrey, are you flirting with me?" She finally asked with a surprised grin.

"Blair Waldorf, I think I've been flirting with you for the past four years without even knowing it," Dan smiled in return.

He then proceeded to tell her about how his true feelings for her had been slowly dawning on him for weeks. And about his encounter with Serena the night before, when he had told her it was definitely over for them this time.

"I felt terrible when I saw the Gossip Girl blast. I hated the thought of you going back to her," Blair admitted shyly.

"I came here tonight for you, only you, Blair. No one else could have got me in a room with so many soul-destroying, society-worshipping capitalists," Dan joked tenderly. "I really, _really_ wanted to dance with you."

Music was drifting to them softly from the ballroom.

Blair held out her hand with a bright smile. "Care to dance, Humphrey?"

They began to spin and turn, their bodies locked in an intimate embrace, as a well-known male vocalist crooned _All of Me _from the next room. They had always been at ease dancing together, even before they had been able to admit they felt at ease with each other the rest of the time too.

"So what made you change your mind about me? What made you decide I'm not the spoilt society princess you thought I was?" Blair asked curiously.

Dan grinned down at her. "Who says I've changed my mind?" He asked teasingly.

Blair glared up at him. "I can see your romance techniques leave as much to be desired as your fashion sense," she sniffed delicately.

Dan grinned more broadly. "When I first met you, I told my father you were a 95-pound, doe-eyed, _**bon mots tossing**_,_**label**_-_**whoring package of girly evil**_. And I still think that."

Blair made to pull away from him. "Well, in that case, I guess I should return to the main ballroom. I was talking to a _fascinating _young lawyer earlier and maybe his conversation will be less insulting."

Dan pulled her to him, cutting her words off with a kiss. Their very first. It was sweet and tender but at the same time, hot and passionate. Dan stroked her neck gently as he continued to kiss along her jaw line until his lips brushed her ear.

"I could stare into your beautiful, brown eyes for hours," Dan murmured. He pulled back so he could stare into said eyes, at times so fierce and yet capable of such gentleness and innocence too. Doe-eyed was definitely an apt description.

"I adore your bon mots. Even when they're directed against me," Dan chuckled ruefully. "And while I think designer clothes are a serious waste of money and that you would look good in a potato sack – you are beautiful in labels." He leant down for another gentle kiss.

"Girly evil?" Blair queried mockingly.

"I'm addicted to it," Dan admitted.

Chuck watched unseen from the door. He had come back to have it out with Blair, determined to get her back. What she felt for Humphrey couldn't be real. He was just a blip in her story. She and Chuck were endgame.

But seeing them together, Chuck could no longer deny the genuineness of Dan and Blair's emotions for each other. It radiated out of them, creating a kind of glow, the happiness they felt just being together. Dan, who always seemed to Chuck to be incongruous and awkward whatever his setting, finally seemed to be right where he was meant to be, completely at home holding Blair in his arms. And Blair...

Blair looked joyful.

Chuck turned on his heel and walked back to his waiting limo. Nate had been right. He would achieve nothing trying to destroy what he had just seen.

A sense of loss settled over him as he suddenly realised the gravity of all the mistakes he had made, all down the line, with Blair.

He had destroyed the one thing that gave his life purpose with his endless game playing.

Now he had a choice.

He could keep up his constant quest for one-up-man-ship and ruin things between himself and the girl he loved (truly) even further.

Or he could stand aside and let her be happy. And hope that his previous predictions had been true. That the two of them were inevitable, and that they would find their way back to each other eventually. In short, he could grow up.

Having made his decision, Chuck told Raina the next day that he thought it was best that she went home and took Jack with her. For the first time since puberty Chuck Bass was going to be celibate. He needed to concentrate on his business interests and mourn the end of the relationship that had made him who he was and saved his life.

By the time midnight struck on New Year's Eve, Blair and Dan had already left the Met ball. Instead they shared a kiss in the back seat of a cab as it sped towards the privacy of Dan's loft.

"This has turned out to be a very, very beautiful friendship," Dan whispered softly as he kissed her again.


End file.
